Movie Watchlist

Here are the movies I've watched recently:I decided to go on an Ellen Page kick, at my peril.An American Crime (??) - I actually couldn't finish watching this, it was so heartbreaking.Hard Candy (A) - Ellen Page is hypnotizing and scary in this film.Despicable Me 2 (A+) - Loved everything about this film. Go see it! I guess I should see the first movie now.Showgirls (D) - Thought I'd watch this and see just how bad it is. It's really, really bad, and not in the fun Plan 9 From Outer Space way.Fast Times At Ridgemont High (B) - A quirky, uneven film that still manages to draw me in.The Big Lebowski (B+) - I have a rough time watching movies whose characters I don't care for (like Raising Arizona), but I must admit there's a certain artistry here. When The Dude meets Treehorn, I realized this was a noir film with a slacker twist, and my appreciation bumped up a few notches. I really hate the character of Walter Sobchak,as played (admirably!) by John Goodman. However, Maude Lebowski (Julianne Moore) was delightful. Not a perfect film, but it'll grow on me.Upstream Color (A+) - I loved the director's previous work, Primer. This one blew my mind. Thank goodness I'm acquainted with the concepts in this book (kinda spoiler) or I'd never figured it out.Looper (A+++) - Wow, best movie I've seen in quite a while. That's the right way to do science fiction.Source Code (A+) - Memento+Groundhog Day+Inception. Great movie, though I was annoyed by the tiresome use of the ever-popular "anti-government" bad guy. The Fountain (B) - Another Aronofsky film I've meant to watch for a while now. While visually gorgeous, and well-acted, I found the final scenario (tree in a bubble) a bit disconnected from the other two narratives. I wish I knew more about how the story got from points A > B > C. I finally see that Aronofsky is stuck on one kind of story: Protagonists drawn to things they can only attain through their death, like a moth to a candle flame.Black Swan (A) - A great movie, despite the controversy over Portman's dancing double's uncredited performance. The hangnail scene elicited an actual outcry from me. Aronofsky makes brilliant films that I never want to see a second time.Moon (B-) - This was pretty good. A bit contrived and ponderous. I liked Oblivion better, but then I saw that first (probably a mistake).Sunshine (D+) - I liked the soundtrack, and the film's last five minutes. Everything else was a trainwreck. I accept the premise (restarting the Sun) but please try to get the other space stuff right. The movie sure looked pretty, though.Star Trek: The Motion Picture (B-) - Director Robert Wise (Andromeda Strain) can't direct an action sequence to save his life, but the film definitely begins to feel like Trek in the last half. It also seems to have set the tone and style of TV Trek series which followed.Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (B): Probably my favorite Trek movie, after Galaxy Quest. The costumes were only a little better than those in The Motion Picture.Star Trek: Into Darkness (C-) - I really didn't care for this film one bit. Damon Lindelof needs to stop trying to write science fiction.The Andromeda Strain (C+) - Terribly slow movie, but it has its moments.Absolute Power (B-) - A nice tale of government corruption, but the revenge felt a little forced.Side Effects (A) - Another great film by Steven Soderberg, it went places I didn't expect.Compliance (A) - Troubling, thought-provoking, and scarily true to the real-world event.John Carter(B) - Better than I expected, a little heavy on the Campbellian Monomyth.The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (Swedish version) (A) - Part 1 of the Millennium Trilogy, I think it's a little truer to the books than Fincher's interpretation.The Girl Who Played With Fire (Swedish version) (A) - Part 2 of the Millennium Trilogy. Pretty brutal!The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest (Swedish version) (A) - Part 3 of the Millennium Trilogy. Great!Wag The Dog (A+) - Hard to believe that came out two years before Lewinsky/Kosovo.All The President's Men (A+) - Why does this movie feel even more relevant today?The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (David Fincher version) (A) - Slick and seductive, the film does take some liberties with the source material, mostly just to offer some surprises to those already familiar with the other versions.BBC's Sherlock, Season 1 + Season 2 (A+) - Some of the best TV programming I've ever seen, on a par with HBO's Game of Thrones.